Garda Found Not Guilty of Forging Letter from DPP

RTE News
March 13, 2015

http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0312/686575-garda-forgery-case/

Detective Garda Catherine McGowan is based at Bray Garda Station

A garda accused of forging a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions has been found not guilty by a jury at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Detective Garda Catherine McGowan, 48, who is based at Bray Garda Station, had pleaded not guilty to one count of forgery on 15 January 2009 at Bray Garda Station and two counts of using a false instrument at Bray Garda Station and at Harcourt Street Garda Station between 21 and 22 June 2011.

The instrument was alleged to have been a letter from the office of the DPP, dated 14 January 2009, directing there be no prosecution in a clerical child abuse case.

The investigation of Det Gda McGowan's handling of the case was prompted by the publication of the Murphy Report, which investigated the response of church and state authorities to clerical sexual abuse in the Dublin area.

The priest in Det Gda McGowan's case was one of the clerics mentioned in the report.

The jury acquitted her of all charges when it returned this morning.